Hubspot vs. Salesforce (2024): Detailed Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Salesforce Sales Cloud and HubSpot CRM are industry-leading customer relationship management (CRM) solutions that serve different purposes. HubSpot stands out for its affordable and easy-to-use platform, making it a better option for small-to-medium businesses, while Salesforce Sales Cloud offers a wealth of advanced features and extensive customization designed for larger teams with complex sales cycles. We evaluated both CRM solutions against a range of enterprise needs—including cost, features, ease of use, customization, and customer support—to help you decide which better suits your business needs.

Salesforce vs. HubSpot CRM at a Glance

Salesforce Sales Cloud and HubSpot CRM are considered two of the best AI CRM solutions, but each platform offers distinct features that make it better suited for certain use cases. The following table shows at a glance how the two CRM solutions differ. Note: All per-user prices are with a one-year commitment unless otherwise noted.

Price Range (Annual)	Free to $150 per user, per month	$25 to $500 per user, per month
Core Features	All-in-one CRM User-friendly tools for inbound marketing and sales	Customizable platform AI-powered sales tools Advanced analytics features
Enterprise Features	Conversational intelligence Recurring revenue tracking Predictive lead scoring	Generative AI Conversation insights Enterprise territory management
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools	ChatSpot AI	Einstein GPT Einstein Copilot
App Integrations	1,500+ apps, more than 500 of which are free via HubSpot App Marketplace	Over 7,000 apps, more than 2,000 of which are free via Salesforce AppExchange
Ease of Use	Straightforward and fairly easy to set up Geared toward beginners and users of all experience levels	Complicated and time-consuming Ideal for users already familiar with CRMs
Customer Support	24/7 email and chat support for all paid plans Phone support for Professional and Enterprise plans	Phone, email, live chat for all plans (business hours) 24/7 support for additional cost
Summary	Good balance of sales and marketing features for SMBs looking for an affordable and easy-to-use platform	Flexible and robust platform for sales teams and enterprises seeking a wealth of AI-powered tools
	Visit HubSpot CRM	Visit Salesforce Sales Cloud

 

What is HubSpot CRM?

HubSpot CRM (Sales Hub) is an industry-leading CRM popular for its free and premium sales and marketing features. Its free plan offers essential tools like contact management, email tracking, meeting scheduling, and conversational bots. Businesses needing advanced features such as workflow automation, predictive lead scoring, and custom reporting should upgrade to paid plans. HubSpot has recently introduced an AI-powered content assistant and ChatSpot.ai to help sales reps create more personalized content to better engage with their customer base.

HubSpot CRM excels in usability and customer support, from which startups and small businesses can benefit the most. This platform is also scalable and designed to adapt to growing companies and large enterprises that need to expand their operations.

Key Features of HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM’s platform boasts rich sales and marketing tools designed to help reps attract, engage, and manage customers. Core CRM features include the following:

• Contact Management: HubSpot offers free contact management tools to help you create contact records, log sales activities, and view customer interactions. You can create up to one million contacts and company records and automatically enrich your database with company details from over two million businesses.
• Multichannel Lead Management: HubSpot is one of the best software programs for inbound lead management, offering teams free tools like meeting links, chatbots, and landing page builders. Upgrade to paid plans for automatic lead routing, predictive lead scoring, and conversation intelligence. Companies can also opt for the CRM Suite and Marketing Hub to access social media management tools and an AI-powered social post generator.
• Prospecting Workspace: Teams can track and manage leads in one place, having access to the relevant data and tools they need. You can keep track of your activities and progress through a personal summary and progress bar.
• Conversational Intelligence: HubSpot’s conversational AI assistant automatically captures voice data and provides deeper insights into your calls. Managers can use these insights to train new reps, identify top performers, understand performance patterns, and more.

Pros

• Robust free platform for up to 2,500 users
• Balance of sales and marketing features
• Scalable software for growing businesses

Cons

• Plans can be expensive for small companies
• Lacks in-depth reporting and analytics
• Advanced features have a steep learning curve

What is Salesforce Sales Cloud?

Salesforce Sales Cloud—often referred to simply as Salesforce—is a sales-focused CRM praised for its highly customizable platform and AI-powered tools. Traditional sales teams will find its robust analytics engine, flexible platform, and intelligent workflows ideal for longer and more complex cycles. Salesforce is built on the Einstein 1 platform, which unifies data, artificial intelligence, CRM, development, and security on one platform. You can access insights and contextual data at every touchpoint to help you determine the next best step in attracting and retaining customers.

Salesforce’s predictive and generative AI enables it to create personalized experiences, resolve issues faster, and design more robust workflows. Salesforce Einstein’s predictive AI capabilities help reps automatically capture data and uncover critical relationships from unstructured data sources. Meanwhile, Einstein Copilot employs generative AI to use an organization’s unique data and metadata to produce powerful insights and recommendations.

Key Features of Salesforce Sales Cloud

Salesforce Sales Cloud’s platform boasts rich sales and marketing tools designed to help reps attract, engage, and manage customers. Some of its core CRM features include the following:

• Einstein AI: Salesforce designed Einstein AI by employing machine learning, natural language processing, and predictive analytics to help teams analyze data, generate insights, and automate workflows.
• Workflow Automation: Salesforce’s Flow Builder features point-and-click automation to help you create seamless and personalized user experiences. Set up triggers to automate tasks based on customer interaction, and monitor flows and processes.
• Opportunity Management: The platform allows reps to monitor and manage sales opportunities using a separate pipeline. Users can gain better visibility of the deal stage and easily create, update, and schedule reminders for every phase.
• Reporting and Analytics: Salesforce offers a powerful suite of reporting tools and a visual drag-and-drop tool for every plan. Upgrading to higher tiers enables you to access advanced reporting features, forecasting, and opportunity splits. Businesses can purchase add-ons for revenue intelligence and equip teams with tailored analytics and actionable insights throughout the sales cycle.

Pros

• Highly customizable platform
• Multiple pipeline tracking
• Offers a wealth of native integrations

Cons

• Steeper learning curve
• More expensive than other CRMs
• Maintenance can be time-consuming

Best for Pricing: HubSpot CRM

HubSpot CRM is the more cost-effective option because of its more affordable plans and a free version offering sales and marketing tools.

HubSpot CRM wins this category with more economical pricing plans than Salesforce and a free-for-life version. Solopreneurs and small businesses can benefit from its free plan, which includes basic CRM functionality, marketing tools, and sales features for up to 2,500 users. As your business grows, you can upgrade to paid plans, starting at $15 per user, per month. HubSpot also offers a Starter Customer Platform, which costs $15 per user, per month for essential marketing, sales, content, and operations features.

For more flexibility and advanced features, companies can purchase the Enterprise plan, which costs $150 per user, per month, although this tier doesn’t have a monthly pricing option. HubSpot offers one of the best free tiers, but upgrading to higher plans can be pricey for those seeking advanced sales and marketing tools. Fortunately, HubSpot has a 14-day free trial for its Professional and Enterprise plans.

Salesforce Sales Cloud, on the other hand, has a higher starting price point. Small businesses can purchase plans starting at $25 per user, per month (Starter Suite) to $100 per user, per month (Pro Suite) for account and contact management features, automated activity capture, sales quoting, forecasting, and real-time chat. Enterprises can upgrade to its highest three tiers for territory management, predictive and generative AI, conversation intelligence, and integration with Data Cloud and Revenue Intelligence platforms. While Salesforce doesn’t offer a free-for-life platform, you can sample the software for 30 days.

Best for Core Features: Salesforce

HubSpot CRM and Salesforce offer strong feature sets ideal for different business needs. However, compared with HubSpot, Salesforce has an advantage in this category with its wide range of CRM features and capabilities.

Contact Management

Every HubSpot CRM plan offers free contact management features, website activity tracking, and integration with Gmail and Outlook to populate your contacts. HubSpot also automatically enriches contact records using company details from a database of over 20 million businesses. Upgrading to higher plans lets you access contact scoring and association labels and increases your limits for shared inboxes.

Account and contact management features are offered across all Salesforce plans to help reps manage the entire sales cycle, from tracking sales leads to managing individual accounts in one place. Businesses can automatically pull data from social media to monitor what contacts say about the brand online or sync email apps with CRM data for a holistic view of the customer’s activities, communication history, and internal account discussions. Upgrading to higher tiers allows you to access the contact intelligence view to see engagement metrics and insights and take the next step to engage with contacts.

Pipeline Management

HubSpot CRM’s pipeline management offers an intuitive interface for monitoring deals across the entire lifecycle, from lead to close. Reps can visualize the entire sales cycle with free pipeline management tools that allow them to easily create new opportunities within the pipeline and automatically add information from contact records. Free plan users can access a single pipeline, while paid subscribers can add up to 100 pipelines per account. HubSpot users can also manage their sales pipeline’s health via the sales dashboard, which shows team and individual performance, key sales activities, and potential roadblocks.

Salesforce’s pipeline management system provides a robust and highly customizable solution designed for complex sales processes. Reps can track deals, visualize sales paths, and accurately forecast revenue with precision. Features like opportunity management and custom sales processes are accessible across all plans, making it easier for reps to split pipelines into multiple pipelines to get into details, including potential sales and opportunity changes. Salesforce’s powerful analytics also allow granular tracking of deal stages, rep activities, and customer interactions, enabling sales managers to make data-driven decisions.

Lead Management

HubSpot CRM helps businesses organize, prioritize, and engage leads on one centralized platform. You can easily access each lead’s history, including company information and a detailed timeline of their interactions with your business. Reps can automatically prioritize leads with custom scoring criteria and populate your database using its smart segmenting tools. HubSpot’s lead management features integrate tightly with its marketing and content hubs, offering free nurturing tools like personalized meeting links, chatbots, and landing page builders.

While HubSpot provides seamless lead management for inbound marketing, users should upgrade to higher tiers for advanced features like predictive lead scoring and lead routing.

Salesforce provides a comprehensive suite of lead management tools offered across all its paid plans for tracking, filtering, and qualifying new prospects. It helps you analyze deals, identify which leads are most likely to convert, and route sales-ready leads to the right rep. Managers can also view the impact of marketing activities on the sales pipeline via the campaign management feature, which lets you monitor lead nurturing efforts across all channels. Upgrading to higher tiers lets you access campaign influence, which enables reps to understand how opportunities are associated with marketing campaigns, improve campaign ROI metrics, and allocate revenue share more easily.

Workflow Automation

HubSpot offers workflow automation across all its paid plans, helping reps eliminate manual processes for tasks like sending web forms, routing tickets, and scheduling targeted and timed emails to nurture leads. Reps can use simple automation to manage follow-ups and use workflows or sequences for more complex processes. Upgrade to the Sales Hub Professional tier to access up to 300 customizable workflows or the Enterprise plan to access up to 1,000 fully customizable workflows, trigger quote-based automation, and monitor workflow health.

Salesforce is one of the best automation platforms on the market, helping teams optimize sales processes by providing more flexibility and power in designing complex workflows. Its point-and-click Flow Builder helps users manage any business processes, including high-volume automation, error handling and debugging, and monitoring your organization’s flows and processes. Salesforce’s Einstein AI also employs machine learning to analyze customer data, so you can create and deploy personalized experiences in any workflow.

Reports and Dashboards

HubSpot CRM connects your CRM data to your marketing, sales, and service data to help you build powerful reports accessible to everyone on your team. The platform offers a range of pre-built report types and dashboards that reps can filter and customize. Users can access basic report templates across all plans, while custom and advanced reporting are available in the Professional and Enterprise plans. Teams can also combine multiple reports to provide a more holistic view of key metrics or set up specific dashboards for reps to track progress toward their goals. While HubSpot is an ideal platform for baseline reports, businesses that require deeper analytics and real-time sales insights might consider Salesforce instead.

Salesforce stands out as a powerful analytics engine, giving businesses the flexibility to build any type of report and generate actionable insights. It offers customizable and real-time reports and dashboards across all its plans, while upgrading to Pro Suite entitles users to advanced reporting and forecasting mobile applications. Higher tiers provide more robust features—such as forecasting, opportunity splits, and sales territories—to give companies a more accurate view of sales data. Businesses that need to access a full suite of AI capabilities, unified data, and sales engagement should purchase Salesforce’s latest Einstein 1 Sales plan.

Best for AI Capabilities: Salesforce

HubSpot CRM and Salesforce both use AI to boost productivity, but Salesforce Einstein offers a wider range of features and a stronger focus on data privacy and personalization.

HubSpot recently released a public beta version of its AI tools for sales, marketing, customer service, and content management. Sales Hub subscribers can employ AI tools for email authoring, predictive sales forecasts, and automatic workflow descriptions. ChatSpot, HubSpot’s conversational AI assistant, is designed to assist sales and marketing activities for prospecting companies, generating content, and analyzing website SEO. This AI tool, powered by OpenAI’s database, ChatGPT, and Dall-E, allows you to send prompts and predefined templates to generate content and perform actions.

Like Salesforce’s Einstein GPT, ChatSpot uses NLP to understand the intent behind customer queries and provide relevant responses. However, Einstein GPT can provide recommendations based on customers’ purchase histories. ChatSpot is free to use even without a HubSpot CRM account, making it a more accessible option, but companies needing an AI tool for more robust personalization might consider Salesforce instead.

Salesforce offers a strong suite of AI capabilities powered by Einstein Copilot and Einstein GPT, a large language model (LLM) that combines public and private AI models with CRM data so users can ask conversational questions within the Salesforce CRM. Salesforce’s partnership with OpenAI enables Einstein GPT’s robust generative AI capabilities through its enterprise-grade ChatGPT technology. Einstein GPT also stands out in data privacy and security with its industry-leading trust layer that separates sensitive data from the LLM.

Einstein Copilot is a customizable, conversational, and generative AI assistant natively embedded across Salesforce applications. Unlike other AI assistants, Einstein Copilot uses an organization’s unique data and metadata to generate powerful customer insights and recommendations while maintaining privacy and data governance. It also doesn’t require costly AI model training before businesses can use it to optimize sales, build e-commerce websites, and quickly produce personalized content.

Best for App Integrations: Salesforce

Salesforce wins in this category because it offers more integrations, especially native and free apps, compared with HubSpot CRM.

HubSpot CRM offers a curated app marketplace of over 1,500 apps, with more than 600 apps available for free. While its marketplace has fewer app integrations than Salesforce, HubSpot prioritizes user-friendliness and accessibility. HubSpot users can integrate apps into the CRM with minimal expertise and use the set-by-step guides and videos for the whole process.

Meanwhile, Salesforce boasts a massive AppExchange with over 7,000 applications designed for various use cases. Businesses can customize their CRMs to fit their unique business processes with over 4,000 native apps built by Salesforce for sales, marketing, customer service, and industry-specific purposes.

However, the large number of apps and custom configurations might require technical expertise, which smaller businesses might lack. Fortunately, Salesforce Trailhead offers step-by-step guides and tutorial videos.

Best for Ease of Use: HubSpot CRM

Hubspot CRM is an easier-to-use platform than Salesforce. Its simple interface, straightforward tools, and vast knowledgebase make it accessible to users of all experience levels.

HubSpot CRM is known for a clean and modern interface that’s easy to navigate. Even users with limited CRM experience can quickly grasp the layout and functionality of the platform. Its customizable templates and drag-and-drop interface also minimize the need for technical expertise while allowing users to tailor the CRM to their specific needs. Users needing additional support in learning CRM implementation can also access HubSpot’s extensive online resources, vast knowledgebase, and active user community. While some CRMs on the market offer paid programs or expensive training, HubSpot Academy provides users with a wide range of free and affordable courses, giving it a clear advantage.

While not the most intuitive CRM on the surface, Salesforce offers extensive functionality and customization for users willing to invest time in learning. The platform can handle complex sales processes, which requires a deeper understanding of CRM and technical expertise. Its initial learning curve can be steeper, and customization options might be overwhelming for newbies and smaller teams without in-house tech support. Fortunately, Salesforce Trailhead offers a free online learning platform that beginners and developers can access. Administrators who need extensive training can also access associate, developer, and architect certifications, albeit quite expensive.

Best for Customer Support: HubSpot CRM

HubSpot stands out in this category for its responsive support team and all-hours customer service offered in its paid plan.

HubSpot CRM offers 24/7 user support for paid tiers. Sales Hub Starter users can access email and in-app support, while Professional and Enterprise accounts have additional phone support. Free plan and view-only users can’t access these support channels, but they can still use the HubSpot Community to connect with peers. Remote onboarding is also available for subscribers for $1,500 (Professional plan) to $3,500 (Enterprise plan).

All Salesforce plans include email, phone, and live chat support, but they are only available during business hours. Users can purchase Salesforce’s Premier and Signature Success plans for access to expert guidance, coaching sessions, and 24/7 support. However, these plans might be too costly for smaller teams and businesses. Users can still take advantage of Salesforce’s standard support, self-service resources, knowledge articles, active user community, and other resources to resolve issues and concerns with CRM implementation.

Why Shouldn’t You Use HubSpot CRM or Salesforce?

HubSpot CRM and Salesforce are industry-leading CRMs, but they might not be the right fit for every business. In a handful of scenarios, you might want to explore alternative CRM solutions.

Who Shouldn’t Use HubSpot CRM

The following business types might not be the best fit for HubSpot CRM:

• Growing Companies on a Limited Budget: While HubSpot offers a wide range of free tools and templates, businesses needing advanced tools and customization might need to upgrade to more expensive plans.
• Large, Complex Sales Teams: HubSpot features strong automation tools, but for very large or complex sales teams with intricate workflows, CRMs with advanced customization might be a better fit.
• Highly-Specialized Businesses: HubSpot offers a range of features for businesses in specific industries, but CRMs like Salesforce have deeper functionality, and niche-specific integrations might be more suitable.

Who Shouldn’t Use Salesforce

The following situations might not be the best fit for Salesforce:

• Startups and SMBs: While Salesforce offers plans specifically for small to medium businesses, its pricing is still relatively more expensive than other CRMs on the market. It also doesn’t offer a free-for-all plan, and unlocking more features and limits incurs additional costs.
• Companies with Limited Tech Support: Salesforce has a steeper learning curve, and its extensive customization can be daunting for new users. If your team lacks technical expertise or needs 24/7 support without costing extra, you might consider an alternative.
• Teams Needing a Straightforward CRM: Salesforce’s caters heavily to customization. If your business thrives on a simple CRM experience, the extensive customization might be too complicated for your team.

3 Best Alternatives to HubSpot CRM and Salesforce

HubSpot CRM and Salesforce are industry leaders, but they might not be ideal for every team and business. While there are many robust alternative CRMs on the market, I recommend Freshsales, Pipedrive, and Zoho CRM.

Freshsales

Freshsales is one of the best CRMs on the market, known for its advanced sales tools, customizability, and user-friendly features. Like HubSpot CRM and Salesforce, it’s part of a broader platform (Freshworks), offering solutions for marketing, customer support, and IT service management. Freshsales’ free plan and affordable pricing structure, ranging between $9 and $59 per user, per month, are ideal for solopreneurs and SMBs. Meanwhile, Freshsales’ AI-powered platform and robust workflows will provide flexibility for scaling companies and large enterprises. However, Freshsales’ built-in marketing features aren’t as powerful as those of other CRMs.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is an easy-to-use, sales-forward CRM that stands out for its visual pipeline approach. Reps can easily monitor deal progress and identify bottlenecks with its multiple pipelines, tracking tools, deal rotting, and drag-and-drop interface. Every Pipedrive plan (starting at $14 per user, per month) includes unlimited contact records and basic contact management features for easier correspondence with customers and your team. Businesses needing more features for lead management, document management, projects, and drip campaigns can purchase Pipedrive’s add-ons, although these can be pricey for smaller teams and businesses. If you’re looking for a user-friendly CRM with built-in tools for these functionalities, try Freshsales.

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is a highly customizable platform popular for its multichannel marketing management and intelligent sales tools. Zoho CRM also offers affordable pricing tiers, ranging between $14 and $52 per user per month, which are relatively cheaper than HubSpot CRM and Salesforce. It also integrates with other Zoho applications, offering users a powerful all-in-one business suite for organizations already using the Zoho ecosystem. Zoho CRM is a good option for businesses needing a solution with sales and marketing features.

How I Evaluated HubSpot CRM vs. Salesforce

To assess HubSpot CRM and Salesforce, I identified six key criteria for teams and businesses needing cost-effective CRM software. From there, I divided each category into weighted subcriteria and assigned an overall score out of five to determine the winner for each category.

Evaluation Criteria

In scoring the two platforms, I placed the highest weight on core and enterprise features, followed by pricing to help users find a robust yet affordable CRM. I also evaluated the customization category as well as ease of use and customer support.

• Core Features (25 percent): Sales teams and businesses need essential functionalities to manage customer relationships. I looked into the standard CRM offerings of each platform, including contact and lead management, pipelines, reports, and workflow automation. Criteria Winner: Salesforce
• Enterprise Features (20 percent): Advanced features determine if the CRM can scale and adapt to complex business processes as you scale. I considered various enterprise features available, such as AI, forecasting, advanced analytics, deal insights, and more. Criteria Winner: Salesforce
• Customization and App Integrations (15 percent): Flexible platforms allow you to tailor your CRM to your specific workflows and processes. I checked out app integrations and the customizability of both platforms, including pipelines, deal stages, and reports. Criteria Winner: Salesforce
• Pricing (15 percent): CRM costs should align with your budget, and you should get the best deal for your money. Here, we looked at each platform’s pricing plans, free version and/or free trial, add-ons, and pricing transparency. Criteria Winner: HubSpot CRM
• Ease of Use (15 percent): A CRM’s usability impacts user adoption and overall efficiency within your team. For this category, I evaluated each platform’s ratings across certified sites, its interface intuitiveness, and the availability of a knowledgebase. Criteria Winner: HubSpot CRM
• User Support (10 percent): Customer support is essential in assisting you when you encounter issues or need help navigating the platform. I assessed the support channels for each CRM via email, chat, and phone, and also looked into real user ratings from reputation sites. I also considered onboarding, training, and an active user community. Criteria Winner: HubSpot CRM

Bottom Line: HubSpot CRM vs. Salesforce

In conclusion, both HubSpot CRM and Salesforce are feature-rich CRMs designed to help businesses manage customer relationships and optimize sales processes. However, they cater to different needs and use cases. HubSpot CRM stands out in terms of affordability, usability, and customer support. Salesforce, on the other hand, excels in core features, advanced tools, and customizability. Ultimately, the best CRM depends on your specific needs, goals, and resources. Before finding the right solution for your business, read other comparison reviews like this one, seek advice from other users, or sign up for free trials (or plans) of the CRM you’re interested in.

For a rundown of AI companies catering to different business needs, read our list of the top AI companies in 2024.

The post Hubspot vs. Salesforce (2024): Detailed Feature-by-Feature Comparison appeared first on eWEEK.